Lightning
by D-Rad
Summary: A mission gone wrong teleports three pilots to Equestria, but there is something deeper involved.
1. Chapter 1

Lightning

Chapter One

A lone pilot sat at a table in his quarters, playing blackjack with a fellow pilot. He was in a base near Bear Mountain, in New York. To the public, he was a guardian of the controversial Indian Point Nuclear Powerplant. To anybody with a black level intelligence clearance, he was guarding a facility deep within the Adirondack Mountains. Literally, the facility was under a mountain. It was home to an experimental government device. The device, only seen by the scientists who worked on it, was an attempt to break the very laws of physics, nature, and anything else.

It was an experiment of teleportation.

The machine, code named Blacklight, was ready for an experiment in a bomb range in Nevada. Of course, it had to be transported there. That was why the two pilots in the base had jitters. They were assigned to provide an escort for the C-130 Hercules carrying Blacklight. Their four plane squad was the last line of defense for the most precious machine in the world. Apparently, the device had a very unstable core of who-knows-what that provides the massive amounts of energy required to operate the device. If all else fails, they were required to lay down their lives to destroy the device. It left in two hours.

(-)

The line of four pilots jogged to their jets, already breathing pure oxygen to rid their bodies of nitrogen. The four pilots had varying types of jets. A special-order Su-47 Berkut, an FA-18 Superhornet, a MiG Foxbat, and an F35 JSF were lined up, the latter belonging to the captain of the flight team. They reached their jets and climbed the "ladder", which was actually a set of boot-sized slots that led to the cockpit. In contrast to their earlier haste, the pilots slowly lowered themselves into the seats of the jet, taking care not to hit any buttons or switches. As soon as he was in the plane, the captain buckled himself in and switched on the Rolls-Royce jet engine. The engine roared to life as a heads-up display projected on the inside of his gold colored visor.

PLEASE WAIT...

IDENTITY CONFIRMED. CAPTAIN CRAIG JOHNSON.

LOADING HUD...

After that, his visor displayed all information that was useful to him. Ammunition count, fuel gauge, altimeter, fuel levels and a speedometer were all shown on the HUD. The small sensors in the helmet tracked eye movement, to navigate menus in the HUD, and to aim his weapons. Craig looked over to his squad, Storm Flight. There was the Su-47, the name displayed above it was TAILWIND. The Superhornet, STINGER. The MiG Foxbat, THUNDER. Craig already knew his code name, LIGHTNING. He liked his code name, and had put in a special request to have his friend's code name changed to THUNDER. Thunder and Lightning.

The friend in question was Annelise Nachter. She was an expert in oncoming interception, and so was the plane. It was sleek, yet large, and very fast. Tailwind was the main dogfighter. He was a mysterious Russian with seemingly no acquaintances on the base, and was seemingly untouchable in the backward-winged Su-47. The FA-18 belonged to a nerdy-looking young pilot. Since he was the only person smart enough to work the complicated software of Multi-Target missiles, he stalked around a dogfight and carefully removed the enemies with scalpel-sharp precision. All of the planes were equipped with similar electronics as Craig's jet, albeit specialized for the roles of the pilots.

The line of jets taxied to the runway. Taking off, they quickly gained altitude to meet the cargo plane in mid-flight. They reached a predetermined vector and met the C-130. Just to be safe, there would be radio silence until Storm Flight was replaced by another group over Kansas. This was going to be a long flight.

(-)

Craig, despite his training, was bored within two hours. He'd "accidentally" broken formation three times to attempt to look in the windows of the plane, but he was quickly caught on all of the tries. They had figured out what he was trying to do, and were covering the windows with cardboard. He started to attempt to navigate the more complicated parts of the HUD, and he eventually figured out how to activate autopilot. He also figured out how to use Quick Commands. It was a system in which he could project a message to the visors of the fellow pilots. Standard commands, like regroup, attack, and defend, were useless to him. He was trying to set up some sort of messaging system between him and Annelise when the cargo plane broke radio silence.

"We have a small group of small aircraft on our radar. They are not radio responsive, and they seem to be coming this way. This could be a UAV threat, so be careful." The escorts gladly broke formation to investigate. When they were a few miles away from the blips, they slowed to make contact with the unknown aircraft. Craig in the front of the V-shaped formation, they approached the aircraft. As soon as they were in range for weaponry, the aircraft accelerated impossibly quickly. Craig instantly recognized the behavior.

"CRUISE MISSILES! Take them down!" Storm Flight powered up their jets, matching the speed of the missiles, which were just out of target reach. The team watched in horror as the missiles impacted the cargo plane. Soon after, an impossibly loud explosion, followed by a large blue cloud, rocked the sky. Debris from the blast rained down in all directions. The remaining planes were pelted by smoking metal, most deflected by the thick armor.

One piece, colored dark blue, flew through the air. It was the device, designed for teleportation. The unstable fusion core, Matter Deconstruction Unit, and the other assorted parts were encased In a container meant for nuclear waste. It was virtually indestructible, but the explosion of the backup core was enough to throw it free from the wreckage. The surprisingly small size of the object allowed it to fly very far, but that was short lived. It collided with the glass dome of a jet.

"AAUUGH! What was that?"

Craig was hit on the stomach with a contraption the size of a cable box, and with similar dimensions. The object started to glow a light blue, and a stomach-shaking bass sound emitted from it. Craig wasn't a genius, but it didn't take one to figure out what was happening.

"Oh, sh-"

BOOM

(-)

Teleportation was not pleasant. It was similar to the feeling of being run over by a steam roller. Twice. Craig opened his eyes to a cracked visor and several alarms blaring. He realized that he was crashing, and he grabbed the controls as he tried to level out the limping jet. The controls responded only moderately, and Craig knew this was a one way street. He had to eject or die.

Craig pulled the cord above his shoulder as small rockets attached to his seat launched him several feet higher into the air. For a moment, it felt as if the parachute wouldn't open. Then a sudden jerk yanked him seemingly upwards. The parachute billowed as it deployed fully, gently lowering its cargo to the ground.

Craig watched as his jet plummeted towards the ground. It flew a good twenty miles before impacting the dirt. When it hit the ground, it shattered into seemingly a million pieces. It was painful to see an old friend die. Defeated, Craig took a look at his surroundings. He was over some sort of weird town. The buildings were from different eras. Old English, modern, tree,... Wait. These people live in trees? Now thoroughly confused, Craig was oblivious to a follower. A colorful tail poked out from behind a cloud. The owner of the tail was following the flying monkey. It looked dangerous, and she was going to stop it from hurting her friends, or her name wasn't Rainbow Dash.

Craig figured he was going to land in the center of the town. It was nighttime, so his black parachute was nearly invisible. There seemed to be some activity in the town. _Looks like the locals are colorful pony breeders who let them walk around. Where there is civilization, there are people, so find a herder. _Try as he might, Craig couldn't see any people, just more ponies. As he drifted even closer to the town, he could hear voices talking. Still no people in sight. The voices sounded worried.

Craig was now floating just above the rooftops, and all of the ponies were watching him with looks of... suspicion? Ponies weren't capable of suspicion... right?

Authors Note:

I am sorry for those readers of my other story, Vector Jump, but I am taking a short break to write this story. They WILL. NOT. CONNECT. I guarantee it. Anyway, I plan to post one chapter a week, and that will be split between the two stories. I have a lot of schoolwork to do this year, so I will be limited with speed, but hopefully not quality. Criticism and reviews always welcome.

~D-Rad


	2. Chapter 2

Lightning

Chapter 2

Unbeknownst to Craig Johnson, he wasn't the only person ensnared by the device. Two of his three teammates were in formation behind him, but the techie was able to fly away before the blast. Suffering similar fates to Craig, both pilots ejected and lost their planes. Annelise was strapped to her seat, lowered slowly by the billowing parachute. She was over a thick forest with the occasional clearing every few hundred feet. She had seen her jet plummet to the ground, a few miles from another jet. She spotted the ejector seat of the second jet. She waited until she touched down, luckily in one of the clearings. The clearing was wide enough to land a helicopter in, if a bit tight.

Annelise quickly unstrapped herself and stood up. She unstrapped the survival kit on the back of the seat and took out the flare gun included in the pack, with three rounds. She loaded one large capsule into the back of the gun, aimed upward, and fired. The flare flew several hundred feet into the air, then exploded, the white-hot burning phosphorous illuminating a few square miles.

Annelise sat down and began to assess her situation. She knew that she and at least one other pilot had been affected by the device's explosion. She was going to be here for a week at the most, so she should make camp and wait for the other pilot to arrive. Annelise rummaged through the survival pack, pulling out some rations, a water purification kit, a pistol, combat knife, and a plastic device with similar construction to a walkie-talkie. The plastic device was a crash beacon. It was impact, water, fire, and cold resistant. It had one switch, which Annelise gladly flipped. She was going to be hauled back to base within a week. Sure, she would catch some flame for failing the mission, but that was secondary to the safety of herself and her fellow pilots.

A few minutes later, a pilot emerged from the edge of the clearing. Annelise stood up, pistol held to her flight suit with a makeshift holster. Both pilots had long since removed their helmets, and could see each other. Annelise recognized the sharp face and black hair of the Russian pilot. He was, like Craig, not a very tall man, but not short either. Part of Annelise was disappointed that it wasn't Craig. They were childhood friends, and had both dreamed of flying planes when they were little. Both were talented pilots, and were eventually both stationed in upstate New York. On their vacations, they would see the many sights that the state held. The view off of Bear Mountain, the decaying Tappan Zee Bridge, the New York City skyline, the Statue of Liberty, and many more were all hidden in the shadow of the city. Craig owned a small Cessna, which he and Annelise would take turns flying to see the stunning views of the Ithacan gorges and Adirondack Mountains.

The Russian spoke in perfect English, "We seem to be in quite the predicament. Your flare was useful, but may attract unwanted attention. There is a village nearby, so we should go that way." He pointed to his right. His survival kit had makeshift straps tied around it, so he could carry it like a backpack. Annelise re-packed her kit and used the knife to cut the parachute cord into ropes. She used the ropes to make her bag a backpack as well. the pair started walking in the designated direction, moving slowly to not make noise and to not trip.

The Russian spoke again, "My name is Dimitri, what is yours?"

"Annelise."

"Annelise, do you have any idea where we are?" Annelise stopped. She had no idea where they were. It was fall in New York, the leaves had already turned, and most had fallen to the ground. In this forest, it was spring or summer, but there were no mosquitos out. That was odd. "No, but we aren't in Kansas anymore, Dorothy."

"My name is not Dorothy. Also, we were only over Illinois. We were never in Kansas." Annelise facepalmed.

(-)

"What are you?" Greg's head whipped around so fast that he caused a pain in his neck. "Ow...dammit. Who said that?"

"Uhh...me?" Craig looked down. There was no denying it. One of the ponies had spoken English. It was a purple unicorn that looked like it was having its doubts about speaking. Speaking. SPEAKING! "DID YOU JUST TALK? HOW DO YOU KNOW MY LANGUAGE!"

"Actually, I was going to ask you the same thing. And why is your face gold?" Wow. Talking. Friggin. Ponies. Craig took a few deep breaths before replying. "My face is not gold. This is a helmet, and since I am unsure of my safety here, I will not be removing it. Now it's my turn. Where am I?" The unicorn looked confused. "You are in Equestria, of course."

"That doesn't really help. What planet am I on?" The confusion became evident in the faces of some of the other ponies. "I... just told you." _Well, this is bad news_, he thought_. _"So I am no longer on Earth... Wait, what about Annelise! I hope she's okay! Oh god, I'll never see her again! It's all my fault!"

"Get up, ya big baby. I'm right here." Craig hurt his neck again as he recognized Annelise's voice. She was standing behind a part of the crowd, which immediately parted to allow the two other creatures through. Craig and Annelise ran towards each other and shared a hug, helmets clashing.

"What ARE you things?" The unicorn was agitated that she still did not know about the new arrivals. Dimitri answered cooly, as if expecting this question for a while. "We are humans, and we come from the planet Earth, which is very similar to this land. Now, what are you?" Even under the circumstances, the unicorn seemed to perk up to the thought of educating someone. "Well, to start, we are ponies. We live on this planet, called Equestria. We have four races of ponies. Pegasi, Earth Ponies, Unicorns, like me, and two Alicorns. All races have their own magic, and their magic usually applies to-"

"Wait. Did you just say 'magic'?" If he didn't have his helmet on, Dimitri would have had an eyebrow raised. "Yes, magic. How do you not know about it? I know you're not from around here, but all three of you have auras, which indicates being able to manipulate the magic present in your bodies." _And it is pretty strong, but I shouldn't tell them that. Yet_.

Twilight was uneasy. These creatures didn't seem hostile, but they had the size advantage in a fight, and they looked agile. She would have to be the temporary diplomat. The other two were swamped with questions from three very excited fillies. She had this one all to herself. "So, could you remove your helmet, please?" Dimitri had a questioning look on his face when he complied. Twilight was surprised. There was no fur present on his face, and his mane was extremely short, by pony standards. He had small, blue eyes and peachy skin. His mane was black, along with his eyebrows. Twilight was unsure if he had fur on his body, but that could wait for later. His clothes were olive green, and were one piece. He had a bag strapped to his back.

"What is in the bag?" Dimitri swung the bag off of his shoulders and dropped it on the ground. He unzipped it, and laid the contents on the ground. Dimitri pointed to the objects as he named them, "Flare gun, shoots a flare into the air, which makes either a lot of light, or a lot of sound. Knife, for cutting various things. Rope, for doing many useful things. Water purifier, uses some chemical to kill bacteria in water and make it drinkable. Rations, for eating. And finally, a pistol for protection."

"What's a pistol?" Dimitri frowned at the question. If they were advanced enough to have houses like this, surely they would have firearms. "A pistol is a type of weapon. A gun, to be precise. It is held in your hand, and when you pull the trigger, a small hammer hits the back of a bullet. Bullets are capsules filled with a small amount of explosives with a piece of metal at the front, usually lead. When the back of a bullet is hit, the explosives detonate, creating enough pressure to send the metal out of the barrel, going _very _fast." Twilight thought for a second, then replied, "so... like a small cannon?"

"Precisely." Dimitri smiled. She was a fast learner. Twilight noticed his teeth, and remembered another question. "What do you eat?" Dimitri lost his smile and spoke evenly, knowing the reaction. "Humans are omnivores. I think you know the implications of that." Twilight looked terrified. Did these creatures eat ponies? "But," Dimitri saw the reaction, "we will not be eating you, or anybody of your species."

"That's a relief. Anyway, I heard three large impacts. Do you have any idea what those were?" Dimitri was waiting for her to ask about that subject. "Those were our airplanes. They are machines that use wings and engines to fly. We had a type of airplane called jets. They were highly maneuverable, fast, and often carried weapons."

"Why would you need weapons?"

"We were in the Air Force, a branch of our military. We were part of a four man group called Storm Flight, but one of our teammanes managed to escape the blast. That reminds me... CAPTAIN! HELLO! Do you know where Blacklight went?" Craig didn't respond. He was currently trying to escape the three fillies that kept jumping on him and screaming questions. Annelise was too busy rolling on the floor laughing, Craig tossed the fillies off, breathing heavily. One of the fillies tripped on landing, fell over and began to cry.

"YOU!" A voice bellowed out from the sky, "NEVER HURT MY FRIENDS!" A rainbow blur launched towards Craig, barreling down from the clouds. Dimitri was there in an instant. He got a running start, then used the back of a tall stallion as a step to launch himself at the blur. He collided with it in mid air, and had it in a chokehold (as close to a chokehold as one could get with a pony) before he hit the ground. He landed on top of the pony, knife pressed to its trachea. "Who are you?"

Rainbow Dash was stunned. That... Human was faster than her. She was speechless. It had leapt at least fifteen feet, and it didn't have wings. Twilight broke her out of her trance. "Rainbow Dash! What was that for? It was an accident!" Dimitri removed the knife and sheathed it. "You know her?"

"Yes! Let her go!" Dimitri stood up, and offered a gloved hand to the dusty pony. She got up by herself, and walked away. Everybody was looking at him, slack-jawed. Craig and Annelise had looks of mild surprise.

"What?"

**Author's Note:**

**Wow! I got a LOT of followers! Thanks, readers! Still, I haven't gotten any critical reviews, so I have no idea if I am doing anything wrong. I hope not. Anyway, I will not be using words like _anypony _and _somepony _outside of dialogue. I think the words are unnecesary. One more thing... I need a name for the bad guy. An original, imposing, and powerful name, preferably. I will pick one out of the reviews, so fire away!**

**~D-Rad**


	3. Chapter 3

Lightning

Chapter Three

"What?"

There were hundreds of eyes on the Russian pilot. His fellow pilots were smiling now. Craig looked impressed. "Didn't know you could move that fast. You just jumped a good fifteen feet, too." Dimitri looked at the place where his bag was. It would have taken him over five seconds to run there, but it felt instant when he did it before. He also didn't remember grabbing the knife, it must have been instinct. He had gotten into scuffles before, but he never felt the speed and agility he felt there. It felt _amazing_.

Twilight galloped off to the library to write Princess Celestia a letter. That human had moved so fast that he was nothing more than a green blur. The thing that troubled her, though, was that the green was not the same color as the clothing, but a neon green, and it was not just an illusion. It was raw and unfocused magical energy. Lots of it. With it, he could probably take out several guards with ease, and that counted him as a threat, even if he was friendly. The Princess needed to know about it. Maybe she would have some advice on the issue.

(-)

Annelise sighed. They had finally gotten away from the damn ponies. Questions like "Is that bump on your face a nose?" and "How do you balance on your hind legs like that?" were just plain annoying. After a few minutes, of the torture, though, Dimitri had learned the coordinates of their wrecked planes.

Apparently, their jets crashed in something called the "Everfree Forest", and none of the ponies were willing to go there. Except for one. Rainbow Dash was, once again, acting as a spy. She had yet to figure out how that... thing moved so fast. He must've gotten lucky, nothing was faster than her.

Annelise was fully aware of her follower (what is more visible than cyan and rainbows?), but she wasn't going to make her feel worse after the embarassing defeat by Dimitri. They would just check the wrecks for salvageable materials, then leave, making it look like they did something productive.

The three humans hiked in silence, the chirping of crickets resounding throughout the forest. They were headed in the direction of Craig's F-35. It was the newest of the three, and might have some useful technology. It was more of a distraction to look at the jets, but Craig had an unwavering excitement. He loved tinkering with machinery, and he was very adept at building small devices out of light technology, such as his custom coffee maker or his hand-crafted (and damn near indestructible) pager. He would now get to do that with top-secret cutting edge technology, and his mind was teeming with possibilities. A power supply, radio transmitter, and other upgrades for their helmets would probably be very useful.

The helmets had a carbon fiber shell, with a golden visor. The inside was padded with soft fabric, and was striped with small cooling slots. It was comfortable, tough, and functional. Craig looked up from his helmet to see that the group stumbled upon a clearing, in which a wrecked body of metal and glass littered the ground.

The wreck was nearly unidentifiable, other than the dented jet engine that was currently ablaze on the other side of the clearing. Craig inspected the damage. He identified the largest piece of the jet, then moved closer. It looked like the left wing and half of the body. The metal was scarred with dirt stains, burns, rips, and dents. The jagged edges of the body revealed sparking wires and leaking tubes. The jet was probably mostly unsalvageable. _If I remember correctly, the battery was in the midsection, so if I move that piece... _

The second his finger made contact with the body of the aircraft, an electric current surged through his hand. It shot up his arm, then to the rest of his body. It didn't hurt, but it felt, for lack of a better word, energizing. Not daring to stop the sensation, Craig kept his hand pressed against the hot metal. An electric blue wave suddenly spread over it, extending to every single part of the aircraft left on the ground. The wave receded back to Craig's hand, and where there was flaming metal before, there was nothing now.

Craig dropped to his knees in shock. "What the hell just happened? Why do I feel so... tingly?" The jaws of the other three were dropped, with Rainbow Dash too stunned to fly. Craig stood up panting, breaking them from their trance. Dimitri was now grinning wildly. "I did not know that you could do that, my friend. But what exactly _did _you do?"

Rainbow Dash looked at Craig questioningly. "I didn't know you could use magic. I've never seen that spell, though. It was like... blue and sparkly... like lightning." Craig frowned. "Spells...?"

"Yeah, you know, like magic spells. You have to talk to a unicorn about that. We Pegasi can't do spells."

"Unicorns... the ones with the horns? Dimitri, weren't you talking to one of them?"

"Yes, Captain. She mentioned magic a few times." Craig nodded and turned back to Rainbow. "You look pretty unfamiliar with all this tech, so I'm guessing that you don't have electronics here. Have you even discovered electricity yet?" Rainbow put a hoof on her chin. "Well, yeah, but it's just for shocking ponies. It takes a lot of magic to make a little electricity, so we just stick with magic most of the time."

"Riiiiiiiight..."

An awkward silence fell over the group. Craig just regained his breath when a flash of white light detonated in the center of the clearing. The light had an effect similar to a flashbang. A tall figure emerged from the light, and it faded. A tall and white Alicorn walked towards the group, smiling embarrassedly. "I really need to find a way to tone that down. That's the third time this week."

Dimitri was stumbling around blindly, Craig was furiously rubbing his eyes, and Annelise was glaring at the figure, posed in a fighting stance. She looked at Annelise and noticed the black hair, grey eyes, pale skin, and aggressive stance of the human. "I'm not going to hurt you. I am Princess Celestia, and I am the ruler of Equestria, along with my sister, Princess Luna. I was told that you were going to investigate the wreckage of your... machines. There is one very close, if I am not mistaken.

"Anyway, will you please join me in Canterlot for an official diplomatic meeting? We have much to discuss."

Author's Note:

Long delay. I know. Got caught up in a destroyed laptop, MW3, Battlefield 3, Gears of War 3, Fallout 3, and various other 3's. Anyway, you have to check out Fallout: Equestria. Looooooooooooooong story, but amazing. And for all of you readers who like the Call of Duty storyline, I am writing my own little MW4. You can find it on my profile.

I will have a chapter out again shortly, just slashed out of Writer's Block. See you soon!

~D-Rad


End file.
